Actiontec 300 Mbps Wireless-N ADSL Modem Router (GT784WN)

Let's get the summary statement out of the way so not to burden you with all the details that you may, or may not, want to read. If you are a copper lined AT&T DSL customer that have not switched over to U-Verse yet, then this modem is a wonderfully economic and full featured modem/router/WIFI AP replacement for your AT&T DSL hardware. It works very well and from what I can tell so far, it's pretty stable.So, not the details...I have been an AT&T DSL customer for 13+ years. My neighborhood has not be upgraded to fiber yet, nor has it been upgraded to AT&T's U-Verse DSL infrastructure yet. My setup still uses a PPPoE protocol, necessitating an AT&T DSL login and supplied password (not to be confused with the password that you set up for your Email client and/or your AT&T profile homepage login). If you are still on this type of AT&T DSL, then this Actiontec model will work wonderfully as an aftermarket replacement. If you are on the newer U-Verse structure then you will be in for some struggles as they use a streetside wireless system to authenticate your DSL account, detecting your modem's MAC address as opposed to using a PPPoE authentication. So be forewarned.I have used a slew of different AT&T endorsed hardware in the last several years, including a few different Westell units (4100, 4100B, and others), an Efficient Networks Speedstream 52xx, and a 2Wire 2701...just to name a few. All have been hit and miss with the Speedstream model working the best. If your OEM AT&T modem goes bad now, contacting AT&T will just have them telling you to buy one of their approved replacement modems from their store. It will likely be from a choice of the 2Wire 2701 (awful modem/gateway-short life, bad power supply), a couple of rebadged Westell units no with Netgear branding, and a cheapie Motorola badged junk. Prices are from $75-$125. Don't try to get a free replacement of out them...if you are able to convince them to send you one, you will be charged a modem lease fee of $7-$8/month for having it. And most of them are junk. Actually, most any modern day available consumer level modems in the market now are pretty much disposable these days. Planned obsolescence is the name of the game in today's consumer electronics world.So aside from the AT&T provided junk that is offered, I have also had an Asus RT-N66U router/gateway and a D-Link DGL4100 that have also gone bad (both being what was classified as an enthusiast level hardware) in the past 5 years. The Asus lasted 1.5 years and currently being sent back for RMA repair.Moving forward, the last winter storm that ripped through the Midwest last week contributed to the not so surprising failure of my 2Wire modem/gateway. The unit is very sensitive to voltage fluctuations and the few flickers that we had in our electricity must have fried the poor thing, despite being plugged into a 2-tier surge protection setup. I had a couple of Westell 4100s that I used to pacify my connection until I could find a suitable replacement.After looking around for different possibilities, I kept returning back to the Actiontec unit. This unit was assessed as a low cost, low risk, relatively decent reviewed option. It is a tidy package of full bore ADSL+ modem, 4 port switch for wired Ethernet, and WIFI a/b/g/N wireless gateway (like the crap 2Wire that I just had). After reading some of the reviews, it appeared that the unit is very DSL provider friendly. This unit is actually a OEM unit that is used by Verizon DSL service in some markets.After receiving the unit, I quickly had it installed and running in less that 10 mins. The installation routine quickly assessed and preconfigured for my AT&T DSL provider. All that was required from the user level was to provide the AT&T DSL login and password information and any adjustments that you want to make for your WIFI, such as encryption protocols, choice of SSID password (they generate one by default, but you can change it...as well as the name of your wifi point). After that, you're authenticated, online, and all that's left is you determining how you want your physical connections routed to the switch.Speed tests were stable and at par with my 6Mbps package. Latency was good and where it needed to be. Wifi performance was good...not as good as my 3 antenna 2.4/5.0ghz Asus RT-N66U, but good nonetheless. Worth noting is that this wireless gateway only uses the 2.4ghz band. Any 2.4ghz hardware that you have in the house (like cordless phones) will/may interfere with wifi performance. I suggest that in your setup routine of the modem, that you select one of the available wifi channels as opposed to the default "auto detect" setting.Stability is good...so far. After you get all your settings the way that you want to, you should reboot the modem. The modem will reboot itself every so many days when it needs to flush it's memory utilization. This is typical and not a need for concern. It's just it's own autonomous way of purging when it get's too bloated.You can mount this modem either vertically (with the supplied, but flimsy, foot base) or horizontally. You cannot mount this modem on a wall as there are no provisions to do so. The browser powered setup page (192.168.0.1 default) is wonderful. It's use of very easy to read graphical GUI style mapping is easy to interpret and understand, even for the non-techie. The setup is very robust, ranging from basic configurations to advanced configurations, including firewall setup, DMZ, port forwarding, IP blocking, etc. It's mostly all there. Firmware was the most current out of the box and can be easily upgraded/flashed through it's setup page...although there has not been any updates listed on their site since 2011.I have several sources feeding into the modem. So far, heat does not appear to be an issue, however, I have not taken any steps to datalog any log term thermal ranges as I always have a USB cooling fan blowing on the modem all the time. This is something that I have done for many, many years now by habit. Modems tend to get hot, especially ones that have a heavy load put on them. An external cooling solution is always a good idea to ensure that your modem does not exceed it's thermal ceilings.There you have it...my nickel review. Take it for what it's worth. You'll see bad reviews and good reviews. Even the best units and models out there are not without rotten apples. I am fortunate enough where I am able to write a positive review and experience for the unit that I received. The packaging was very sound and you will get all the accessories that you need to have this installed very fast and easily. Again, my strongest word of advice to make for a smooth install is that have your AT&T DSL login and password ready before you start installing it. If you do NOT know this information, you can call up AT&T and they will provide it for you, assuming that you clear all their security questions.My only gripe(s) about this modem? -1 silent star for it's shortcomings.*5.0ghz dual band offering would have been nice.*Provisions for wall mounting would be nice.*A more robust/secure mounting foot for vertical placement.Small gripes among large number of PROs. For all that you do get, it's priced very appropriately, if not very well. 5 official review stars for it's total value and it's ability to deliver on it's advertised promises.

Long story short . . . I bought a new Sony "3D" BR DVD Player but could not (reliably) connect to many of the streaming video movie providers (like Netflix, Crackle) even Video Unlimited hosted by Sony via this DVD player. That is, until I replaced my AT&T DSL subscriber provided 2Wire 2701HG-B modem wireless router gateway spec'd to the "G" standard. I had decent ISP service using that unit for several years, as an AT&T DSL "Elite" subscriber, but it was less than stellar when I introduced my new Sony DVD player on my home network. HD movies frequently dropped out while streaming, and some streaming movie sites would not even connect at all, even by "hard wired" Ethernet cable connection (vs. wirelessly) to my 2Wire Gateway. Needless to say, this was VERY frustrating.Although the prior reviews here are overwhelmingly positive, I remained somewhat skeptical when I purchased this Actiontec GT784WN, to try out as a replacement the AT&T provided 2Wire 2701HG-B. I thought to myself, "wireless N has to be better than G", and I was right! Duhh!!!Many other reviewers here have rightfully pinged (no pun intended) on this product because of difficulties during the installation procedure. Actually, this is the fault of AT&T not Actiontec! AT&T has no incentive to support additional 3rd parties in the DSL Gateway business. Sadly, AT&T customers are still being sold the 2Wire "G" spec Gateway, which should be considered obsolete by today's standards of wireless home networking!To make sure I was fully prepared to install a seemingly "unsupported" Actiontec Gateway on an AT&T DSL network, I read all the aforementioned reviews and read the FAQ on the Actiontec website for this product. I am glad I did as their is a lot of useful additional information on their website.Nevertheless, many AT&T customers switching to this product are apparently having problems connecting to their phone company's DSL network. With AT&T DSL this is mostly because of a rather confusing password protection scheme imposed on all modems (even made by 2Wire). I must admit this alone could be quite troublesome for many people lacking technical networking skills.I was able to avoid this problem, fortunately, because I had the foresight to write down the "correct" login user ID and password at the time of my original DSL Gateway installation. But, just to be sure, BEFORE I disconnected my old 2Wire unit, I hooked up my laptop directly to one of its Ethernet ports and used my browser to interrogate its configuration to find out the "network" password. Somewhat surprisingly, it still matched what I had written down several years ago, so at this point, I was fairly certain installing the Actiontec would be piece of cake. Thankfully, it most certainly was to my great satisfaction.Here's a nice tip, . . . this Actiontec Gateway allow setting its (new) network name, referred to as an "ESSID" and security encrytion password to whatever you wish so long as its still in prescribed format for such thing in the world of home networking. Thus, I decided to continue using the same network name "2WIRE###" previous set as the default by my old Gateway. I kept the same encryption (64 bit WEP) passkey - ten digits - also, and therefore was able to keep the same password in my Actiontec Gateway. Now all my home network access devices (1-Desktop PC, 1-Laptop PC, 2-BR DVD Players, iPhone and Apple TV), all continue to connect to the Internet using WiFi, without any wireless reconfiguring necessary whatsoever. VERY NICE!!!So, there is a very happy ending to this story, and just in time for Christmas to boot. Actiontec's 300 Mbps ADSL Modem Wireless "N" Router Gateway absolutely ROCKS and worth every penny!The data rate I am getting now to all my wireless devices at best is reasonably close to full line speed (6Mbps downloading on AT&T Internet Elite). With Actiontec's dual external antenna, the WiFi range throughout my 2 story, 4 bedroom home is quite good as well. I still get about 4.5Mbps, during peak utilization times on the AT&T DSL network, good enough to stream all HD movies quite reliably. Also, the latency seems much improved using this product to connect to the Internet. I typically see 25ms.I now have uninterrupted (100% reliable) streaming video capabilities, to my new DVD player, so I can watch hollywood movies on my also just purchased Vizio 42" 3D LCD HDTV (also very positively reviewed on Amazon.com as well). I like to watch movies at home, far less expensive and convenience than going to the theater. And now, I watch a wide variety of good quality movies, including those in FULL HD 1080P format, some in 3D, without wasting money on expensive Blu-Ray DVDs!With the addition of my Actiontec DSL Gateway, and a good quality (yet increasingly more affordable) 1080p LCD HDTV, together with my existing high speed DSL ISP, I now have a multitude of Internet streaming video-on-demand movie sources to choose from. Many do not require paid subscriptions (e.g. CRACKLE). The typical VOD movie rental is only 5 bucks or less. VuDu is my favorite because it has a built-in "network test" to make sure your Internet bandwidth is sufficient to stream full 1080p movies. With my new Sony DVD inputting to my Vizio HDTV via HDMI, even "standard" definition movies (480p) look fantastic; perhaps due to the "upscaling" capability of most DVD player currently available.CONCLUSION: Investing in this Actiontec product was well worth the price!